---
title: Google Drive
---

This notebook covers how to retrieve documents from `Google Drive`.

## Prerequisites

1. Create a Google Cloud project or use an existing project
1. Enable the [Google Drive API](https://console.cloud.google.com/flows/enableapi?apiid=drive.googleapis.com)
1. [Authorize credentials for desktop app](https://developers.google.com/drive/api/quickstart/python#authorize_credentials_for_a_desktop_application)
1. `pip install -U google-api-python-client google-auth-httplib2 google-auth-oauthlib`

## Retrieve the Google Docs

By default, the `GoogleDriveRetriever` expects the `credentials.json` file to be `~/.credentials/credentials.json`, but this is configurable using the `GOOGLE_ACCOUNT_FILE` environment variable.
The location of `token.json` uses the same directory (or use the parameter `token_path`). Note that `token.json` will be created automatically the first time you use the retriever.

`GoogleDriveRetriever` can retrieve a selection of files with some requests.

By default, If you use a `folder_id`, all the files inside this folder can be retrieved to `Document`.

You can obtain your folder and document id from the URL:

* Folder: [drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1yucgL9WGgWZdM1TOuKkeghlPizuzMYb5](https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1yucgL9WGgWZdM1TOuKkeghlPizuzMYb5) -> folder id is `"1yucgL9WGgWZdM1TOuKkeghlPizuzMYb5"`
* Document: [docs.google.com/document/d/1bfaMQ18_i56204VaQDVeAFpqEijJTgvurupdEDiaUQw/edit](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bfaMQ18_i56204VaQDVeAFpqEijJTgvurupdEDiaUQw/edit) -> document id is `"1bfaMQ18_i56204VaQDVeAFpqEijJTgvurupdEDiaUQw"`

The special value `root` is for your personal home.

```python
from langchain_googledrive.retrievers import GoogleDriveRetriever

folder_id = "root"
# folder_id='1yucgL9WGgWZdM1TOuKkeghlPizuzMYb5'

retriever = GoogleDriveRetriever(
    num_results=2,
)
```

By default, all files with these MIME types can be converted to `Document`.

* `text/text`
* `text/plain`
* `text/html`
* `text/csv`
* `text/markdown`
* `image/png`
* `image/jpeg`
* `application/epub+zip`
* `application/pdf`
* `application/rtf`
* `application/vnd.google-apps.document` (GDoc)
* `application/vnd.google-apps.presentation` (GSlide)
* `application/vnd.google-apps.spreadsheet` (GSheet)
* `application/vnd.google.colaboratory` (Notebook colab)
* `application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation` (PPTX)
* `application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document` (DOCX)

It's possible to update or customize this. See the documentation of `GoogleDriveRetriever`.

But, the corresponding packages must be installed.

```python
%pip install -qU  unstructured
```

```python
retriever.invoke("machine learning")
```

You can customize the criteria to select the files. A set of predefined filter are proposed:

| Template                                 | Description                                                           |
| --------------------------------------   | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `gdrive-all-in-folder`                   | Return all compatible files from a `folder_id`                        |
| `gdrive-query`                           | Search `query` in all drives                                          |
| `gdrive-by-name`                         | Search file with name `query`                                         |
| `gdrive-query-in-folder`                 | Search `query` in `folder_id` (and sub-folders in `_recursive=true`)  |
| `gdrive-mime-type`                       | Search a specific `mime_type`                                         |
| `gdrive-mime-type-in-folder`             | Search a specific `mime_type` in `folder_id`                          |
| `gdrive-query-with-mime-type`            | Search `query` with a specific `mime_type`                            |
| `gdrive-query-with-mime-type-and-folder` | Search `query` with a specific `mime_type` and in `folder_id`         |

```python
retriever = GoogleDriveRetriever(
    template="gdrive-query",  # Search everywhere
    num_results=2,  # But take only 2 documents
)
for doc in retriever.invoke("machine learning"):
    print("---")
    print(doc.page_content.strip()[:60] + "...")
```

Else, you can customize the prompt with a specialized `PromptTemplate`

```python
from langchain_core.prompts import PromptTemplate

retriever = GoogleDriveRetriever(
    template=PromptTemplate(
        input_variables=["query"],
        # See https://developers.google.com/drive/api/guides/search-files
        template="(fullText contains '{query}') "
        "and mimeType='application/vnd.google-apps.document' "
        "and modifiedTime > '2000-01-01T00:00:00' "
        "and trashed=false",
    ),
    num_results=2,
    # See https://developers.google.com/drive/api/v3/reference/files/list
    includeItemsFromAllDrives=False,
    supportsAllDrives=False,
)
for doc in retriever.invoke("machine learning"):
    print(f"{doc.metadata['name']}:")
    print("---")
    print(doc.page_content.strip()[:60] + "...")
```

## Use Google Drive 'description' metadata

Each Google Drive has a `description` field in metadata (see the *details of a file*).
Use the `snippets` mode to return the description of selected files.

```python
retriever = GoogleDriveRetriever(
    template="gdrive-mime-type-in-folder",
    folder_id=folder_id,
    mime_type="application/vnd.google-apps.document",  # Only Google Docs
    num_results=2,
    mode="snippets",
    includeItemsFromAllDrives=False,
    supportsAllDrives=False,
)
retriever.invoke("machine learning")
```
